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had named his heir, assumed the title of caliph, and, by a decisive victory near the river Zab (750), effected the overthrow of the Ommiad dynasty. Merwan fled to Egypt, but was pursued and put to death, and the vanquished family was treated with a severity which gained for AbulAbbas the surname of Al-Saffah, the Blood-shedder. From this time the house of Abbas was fully established in the government, but the Spanish provinces were lost to the empire by the erection of an independent caliphate of Cordova, under Abderrahman.

On the death of Abul-Abbas, Almansur succeeded to the throne, and founded Baghdad as the seat of empire. He and his son Mohdi waged war successfully against the Turkomans and Greeks of Asia Minor; but from this time the rule of the Abbassides is marked rather by the development of the liberal arts than by extension of territory. The strictness of the Mohammedan religion was relaxed, and the faithful yielded to the seductions of luxury. The caliphs Harun Al-Rashid (786-809) and Al-Mamun (813-833) attained a world-wide celebrity by their gorgeous palaces, their vast treasures, and their brilliant and numerous equipages, in all which their splendour contrasted strikingly with the poverty of European sovereigns. The former is known as one of the heroes of the Arabian Nights; the latter more worthily still as a liberal patron of literature and science. It is a mistake, however, to look in the rule of these caliphs for the lenity of modern civilisation. "No Christian government," says Hallam, "except perhaps that of Constantinople, exhibits such a series of tyrants as the caliphs of Baghdad, if deeds of blood, wrought through unbridled passion or jealous policy, may challenge the name of tyranny."

The territory of the Abbassides soon suffered dismemberment, and their power began to decay. Rival sovereignties (Ashlabites, Edrisites, &c.) arose in Africa, and an independent government was constituted in Khorasan (820), under the Taherites. In the West, again, the Greeks encroached upon the possessions of the Saracens in Asia Minor. Ruin, however, came from a less civilised race. The caliphs had continually been waging war with the Tartar hordes of Turkestan, and many captives taken in these wars were dispersed throughout the empire. Attracted by their bravery and fearing rebellion among his subjects, Motassem (833-842), the founder of Samarah, and successful opponent of the Grecian forces under Theophilus, formed bodyguards of the Turkish prisoners, who became from that time the real governors of the Saracen empire. Motawakkel, son of Motassem, was assassinated by them in the palace (861); and succeeding caliphs became mere puppets in their hands. Radhi (934-941) was compelled by the disorganised condition of his kingdom to delegate to Mohammed ben Rayek (936 A.D.), under the title of Emiral-Omara, commander of the commanders, the government of the army and the other functions of the caliphate. Province after province proclaimed itself independent; the caliph's rule became narrowed to Baghdad and its vicinity; and the house of Abbas lost its power in the East for ever, when Hulagu, prince of the Mongols, set Baghdad on fire, and slew Motassem, the reigning caliph (20th Feb. 1258). The Abbassides continued to hold a semblance of power in the merely nominal caliphate of Egypt, and feebly attempted to recover their ancient seat. The last of them, Motawakkel III., was taken by Sultan Selim I., the conqueror of Egypt, to Constantinople, and detained there for some time as a prisoner. He afterwards returned to Egypt, and died at Cairo a pensionary of the Ottoman government, in 1538.

ABBÉ is the French word corresponding to ABBOT, but, fron the middle of the sixteenth century to the time of the French Revolution, the term had a wider application.

The assumption by a numerous class of the name and style of abbe appears to have originated in the right conceded to the King of France, by a concordat between Pope Leo X. and Francis I., to appoint abbés commendataires to 225 abbeys, that is, to most of the abbeys in France. This kind of appointment, whereby the living was commended to some one till a proper election could take place, though ostensibly provisional, really put the nominee in full and permanent possession of the benefice. He received about one-third of the revenues of the abbey, but had no share in its government, the charge of the house being intrusted to a resident officer, the prieur claustral. The abbés commendataires were not necessarily priests; the papal bull required indeed that they should take orders within a stated time after their appointment, but there seems to have been no difficulty in procuring relief from that obligation. The expectation of obtaining these sinecures drew young men towards the Church in considerable numbers, and the class of abbés so formedabbés de cour they were sometimes called, and sometimes (ironically) abbés de sainte espérance, abbés of St Hope-. came to hold a recognised position, that perhaps proved as great an attraction as the hope of preferment. The connection many of them had with the Church was of the slenderest kind, consisting mainly in adopting the name of abbé, after a remarkably moderate course of theological study; practising celibacy; and wearing a distinctive dress-a short dark-violet coat with narrow collar. Being men of presumed learning and undoubted leisure, many of the class found admission to the houses of the French nobility as tutors or advisers. Nearly every great family had its abbé. As might be imagined from the objectless sort of life the class led, many of the abbés were of indifferent character; but there are not a few instances of abbés attaining eminence, both in political life and in the walks of literature and science. The Abbé Sieyes may be taken as a prominent example of the latter type. ABBEOKUTA, or ABEOKUTA, a town of West Africa in the Yoruba Country, situated in N. lat. 7° 8', and E. long. 3' 25', on the Ogun River, about 50 miles north of Lagos, in a direct line, or 81 miles by water. It lies in a beautiful and fertile country, the surface of which is broken by masses of grey granite. Like most African towns, Abbeokuta is spread over an extensive area, being surrounded by mud walls, 18 miles in extent. The houses are also of mud, and the streets mostly narrow and filthy. There are numerous markets in which native products and articles of European manufacture are exposed for sale. Palm-oil and shea-butter are the chief articles of export, and it is expected that the cotton of the country will become a valuable article of commerce. The slave trade and human sacrifices have been abolished; but notwithstanding the efforts of English and American missionaries, the natives are still idle and degraded. The state called Egbaland, of which Abbeokuta is the capital, has an area of about 3000 square miles. Its progress has been much hindered by frequent wars with the king of Dahomey. Population of the town, about 150,000; of the state or adjacent territory, 50,000. (See Burton's Abbeokuta and the Cameroon Mountains, 2 vols.)

ABBESS, the female superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess, correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office was elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the sisters from their own body. The abbess was solemnly admitted to her office by episcopal benediction, together with the conferring of a staff and pectoral, and held it for life, though liable to be deprived for misconduct. The Council of Trent fixes the qualifying age at forty, with eight years of profession. Abbesses had

a right to demand absolute obedience of their nuns, over whom they exercised discipline, extending even to the power of expulsion, subject, however, to the bishop. As a female an abbess was incapable of performing the spiritual functions of the priesthood belonging to an abbot. She could not ordain, confer the veil, nor excommunicate. In the eighth century abbesses were censured for usurping priestly powers by presuming to give the veil to virgins, and to confer benediction and imposition of hands on men. In England they attended ecclesiastical councils, e.g. that of Becanfield in 694, where they signed before the presbyters.

By Celtic usage abbesses presided over joint-houses of monks and nuns. This custom accompanied Celtic monastic missions to France and Spain, and even to Rome itself. At a later period, A.D. 1115, Robert, the founder of Fontevraud, committed the government of the whole order, men as well as women, to a female superior.

Martene asserts that abbesses formerly confessed nuns, but that their undue inquisitiveness rendered it necessary to forbid the practice.

The dress of an English abbess of the 12th century consisted of a long white tunic with close sleeves, and a black overcoat as long as the tunic, with large and loose sleeves, the hood covering the head completely. The abbesses of the 14th and 15th centuries had adopted secular habits, and there was little to distinguish them from their lay sisters.

(E. V.) ABBEVILLE, a city of France, in the department of the Somme, is situated on the River Somme, 12 miles from its mouth in the English Channel, and 25 miles N.W. of Amiens. It lies in a pleasant and fertile valley, and is built partly on an island, and partly on both sides of the river. The streets are narrow, and the houses are mostly picturesque old structures, built of wood, with many quaint decaying gables and dark archways. The town is strongly fortified on Vauban's system. It has a tribunal and chamber of commerce. The most remarkable edifice is the Church of St Wolfran, which was erected in the time of Louis XII. Although the original design was not completed, enough was built to give a good idea of the splendid structure it was intended to erect. The façade is a magnificent specimen of the flamboyant Gothic style, and is adorned by rich tracery, while the western front is flanked by two Gothic towers. A cloth manufactory was established here by Van Robais, a Dutchman, under the patronage of the minister Colbert, as early as 1669; and since that time Abbeville has continued to be one of the most thriving manufacturing towns in France. Besides black cloths of the best quality, there are produced velvets, cottons, linens, serges, sackings, hosiery, packthread, jewellery, soap, and glass-wares. It has also establishments for spinning wool, print-works, bleachingworks, tanneries, a paper manufactory, &c.; and being situated in the centre of a populous district, it has a considerable trade with the surrounding country. Vessels of from 200 to 300 tons come up to the town at high-water. Abbeville is a station on the Northern Railway, and is also connected with Paris and Belgium by canals. Fossil remains of gigantic mammalia now extinct, as well as the rude flint weapons of pre-historic man, have been discovered in the geological deposits of the neighbourhood. A treaty was concluded here in 1259 between Henry III. of England and Louis IX. of France, by which the province of Guienne was ceded to the English. Population, 20,058.

ABBEY, a monastery, or conventual establishment, under the government of an ABBOT or an ABBESS. A priory only differed from an abbey in that the superior bore the name of prior instead of abbot. This was the

case in all the English conventual cathedrals, e.g., Canterbury, Ely, Norwich, &c., where the archbishop or bishop occupied the abbot's place, the superior of the monastery being termed prior. Other priories were originally offshoots from the larger abbeys, to the abbots of which they continued subordinate; but in later times the actual distinction between abbeys and priories was lost.

Reserving for the article MONASTICISM the history of the rise and progress of the monastic system, its objects, benefits, evils, its decline and fall, we propose in this article to confine ourselves to the structural plan and arrangement of conventual establishments, and a description of the various buildings of which these vast piles were composed.

The earliest Christian monastic communities with which Cells. we are acquainted consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common centre, which was usually the abode of some anchorite celebrated for superior holiness or singular asceticism, but without any attempt at orderly arrangement. The formation of such communities in the East does not date from the introduction of Christianity. The example had been already set by the Essenes in Judea and the Therapeuta in Egypt, who may be considered the prototypes of the industrial and meditative communities of monks.

In the earliest age of Christian monasticism the ascetics were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, at no great distance from some village, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants to the poor. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them further and further away from the abodes of men into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the cells or huts of these anchorites. Antony, who had retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the persecution of Maximin, A.D. 312, was the most celebrated among them for his austerities, his sanctity, and his power as an exorcist. His fame collected round him a host of followers, emulous of his sanctity. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their cells round that of their spiritual father. Thus arose the first monastic community, consisting of anchorites living each in his own little dwelling, united together under one superior. Antony, as Neander remarks (Church History, vol. iii. p. 316, Clark's Trans.), "without any conscious design of his own, had become the founder of a new mode of living in common, Cœnobitism." By degrees order was introduced in the groups of huts. They were arranged in lines like the tents in an encampment, or the houses in a street. From this arrangement these lines of single cells came to be known as Laura, Aavpal, "streets" or "lanes."

The real founder of cœnobian monasteries in the modern Cœnobi sense was Pachomius, an Egyptian of the beginning of the 4th century. The first community established by him was at Tabennæ, an island of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in his lifetime, numbering 3000 monks. Within 50 years from his death his societies could reckon 50,000 members. These cœnobia resembled villages, peopled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex. The buildings were detached, small, and of the humblest character. Each cell or hut, according to Sozomen (H. E. iii. 14), contained three monks. They took their chief meal in a common refectory at 3 P.M., up to which hour they usually fasted. They ate in silence, with hoods so drawn over their faces that they could see nothing but what was on the table before them. The monks spent all the time, not devoted to religious services or study, in manual labour. Palladius, who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of the 4th century, found among the 300

Santa
Laura,
Mt. Athos.

members of the Coenobium of Panopolis, under the Pachomian rule, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 carpenters, 12 camel-drivers, and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its own oeconomus, or steward, who was subject to a chief œconomus stationed at the head establishment. All the produce of the monks' labour was committed to him, and by him shipped to Alexandria. The money raised by the sale was expended in the purchase of stores for the support of the communities, and what was over was devoted to charity. Twice in the year the superiors of the several cœnobia met at the chief monastery, under the presidency of an Archimandrite ("the chief of the fold," from μúvdpa, a fold), and at the last meeting gave in reports of their administration for the year.

The

The cœnobia of Syria belonged to the Pachomian institution. We learn many details concerning those in the vicinity of Antioch from Chrysostom's writings. monks lived in separate huts, káλvßat, forming a religious hamlet on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and observed a common rule. (They had no refectory, but ate their common meal, of bread and water only, when the day's labour was over, reclining on strewn grass, sometimes out of doors.) Four times in the day they joined in prayers and psalms.

The necessity for defence from hostile attacks, economy of space, and convenience of access from one part of the community to another, by degrees dictated a more compact and orderly arrangement of the buildings of a monastic cœnobium. Large piles of building were erected, with strong outside walls, capable of resisting the assaults of an enemy, within which all the necessary edifices were ranged round one or more open courts, usually surrounded with cloisters. The usual Eastern arrangement is exemplified in the plan of the convent of Santa Laura, Mt. Athos (Laura, the designation of a monastery generally, being converted into a female saint).

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Monastery of Santa Laura, Mount Athos (Lenoir).

This monastery, like the Oriental monasteries generally is surrounded by a strong and lofty blank stone wall, enclosing an area of between 3 and 4 acres. The longer side extends to a length of about 500 feet. There is only one main entrance, on the north side (A), defended by three separate iron doors. Near the entrance is a large tower (M), a constant feature in the monasteries of the Levant. There is a small postern gate at (L.) The

enceinte comprises two large open courts, surrounded with buildings connected with cloister galleries of wood or stone. The outer court, which is much the larger, contains the granaries and storehouses (K), and the kitchen (H), and other offices connected with the refectory (G). Immediately adjacent to the gateway is a two-storeyed guesthouse, opening from a cloister (C). The inner court is surrounded by a cloister (EE), from which open the monks' cells (II). In the centre of this court stands the catholicon or conventual church, a square building with an apse of the cruciform domical Byzantine type, approached by a domed narthex. In front of the church stands a marble fountain (F), covered by a dome supported on columns. Opening from the western side of the cloister, but actually standing in the outer court, is the refectory (G), a large cruciform building, about 100 feet each way, decorated within with frescoes of saints. At the upper end is a semicircular recess, recalling the Triclinium of the Lateran Palace at Rome, in which is placed the seat of the Hegu. menos or abbot. This apartment is chiefly used as a hall of meeting, the Oriental monks usually taking their meals in their separate cells. St Laura is exceeded in magnitude by the Convent of Vatopede, also on Mount Athos. This Vatopede. enormous establishment covers at least 4 acres of ground, and contains so many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a fortified town. It lodges above 300 monks, and the establishment of the Hegumenos is described as resembling the court of a petty sovereign prince. The immense refectory, of the same cruciform shape as that of St Laura, will accommodate 500 guests at its 24 marble tables.

The annexed plan of a Coptic monastery, from Lenoir shows us a church of three aisles, with cellular apses, and two ranges of cells on either side of an oblong gallery.

Monasticism in the West owes its extension and development to to Benedict of Nursia (born A.D. 480). His rule was diffused with miraculous rapidity from the parent foundation on Monte Cassino through the whole of Western Europe, and every country witnessed the erection of monas

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Plan of Coptic Monastery.

teries far exceeding anything A. Narthex.

B. Church.

that had yet been seen in spaci- C. Corridor, with cells on each side. ousness and splendour. Few D. Staircase.

great towns in Italy were without their Benedictine convent, Benedicand they quickly rose in all the great centres of population in tine. England, France, and Spain. The number of these monasteries founded between A.D. 520 and 700 is amazing. Before the Council of Constance, A.D. 1415, no fewer than 15,070 abbeys had been established of this order alone. The Benedictine rule, spreading with the vigour of a young and powerful life, absorbed into itself the older monastic foundations, whose discipline had too usually become disgracefully relaxed. In the words of Milman (Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 425, note x.), "The Benedictine rule was universally received, even in the older monasteries of Gaul, Britain, Spain, and throughout the West, not as that of a rival order (all rivalry was of later date), but as a more full and perfect rule of the monastic life." Not only, therefore, were new monasteries founded, but those already existing were pulled down, and rebuilt to adapt them to the requirements of the new rule.

The buildings of a Benedictine abbey were uniformly arranged after one plan, modified where necessary (as at

St Gall.

Durham and Worcester, where the monasteries stand close to the steep bank of a river), to accommodate the arrangement to local circumstances.

We have no existing examples of the earlier monasteries of the Benedictine order. They have all yielded to the ravages of time and the violence of man. But we have fortunately preserved to us an elaborate plan of the great Swiss monastery of St Gall, erected about A.D. 820, which puts us in possession of the whole arrangements of a monastery of the first class towards the early part of the 9th century. This curious and interesting plan has been made the subject of a memoir both by Keller (Zurich, 1844) and by Professor Willis (Arch. Journal, 1848, voi. 7. pp. 86-117). To the latter we are indebted for the

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the original preserved in the archives of the convent. The general appearance of the convent is that of a town of isolated houses with streets running between them. It is evidently planned in compliance with the Benedictine rule, which enjoined that, if possible, the monastery should contain within itself every necessary of life, as well as the buildings more intimately connected with the religious and social life of its inmates. It should comprise a mill, a bakehouse, stables and cow-houses, together with accommodation for carrying on all necessary mechanical arts within the walls, so as to obviate the necessity of the monks going outside its limits. The general distribution of the buildings may be thus described :-The church, with its cloister to the south, occupies the centre of a quadrangular area, about 430 feet square. The buildings, as in all great monasteries, are distributed into groups. The church forms the nucleus, as the centre of the religious life of the community. In closest connection with the church is the group of buildings appropriated to the monastic life and its daily requirements--the refectory for eating, the dormitory for sleeping, the common room for social intercourse, the chapter-house for religious and disciplinary conference. These essential elements of monastic life are ranged about a cloister court, surrounded by a covered arcade, affording communication sheltered from the elements, between the various buildings. The infirmary for sick monks, with the physician's house and physic garden, lies to the east. In the same group with the infirmary is the school for the novices. The outer school, with its head-master's house against the opposite wall of the church, stands outside the convent enclosure, in close proximity to the abbot's house, that he might have a constant eye over them. The buildings devoted to hospitality are divided into three groups,-one for the reception of distinguished guests, another for monks visiting the monastery, a third for poor travellers and pilgrims. The first and third are placed to the right and left of the common entrance of the monastery, the hospitium for distinguished guests being placed on the north side of the church, not far from the abbot's house; that for the poor on the south side next to the farm buildings. The monks are lodged in a guest-house built against the north wall of the church. The group of buildings connected with the material wants of the establishment is placed to the south and west of the church,' and is distinctly separated from the monastic buildings. The kitchen, buttery, and offices, are reached by a passage from the west end of the refectory, and are connected with the bakehouse and brewhouse, which are placed still further away. The whole of the southern and western sides is devoted to workshops, stables, and farm-buildings. The buildings, with some exceptions, seem to have been of one story only, and all but the church were probably erected of wood. The whole includes thirty-three separate blocks. The church (D) is cruciform, with a nave of nine bays, and a semicircular apse at either extremity. That to the west is surrounded by a semicircular colonnade, leaving an open "Paradise" (E) between it and the wall of the church. The whole area is divided by screens into various chapels. The high altar (A) stands immediately to the east of the transept, or ritual choir; the altar of St Paul (B) in the eastern, and that of St Peter (C) in the western apse. cylindrical campanile stands detached from the church on either side of the western apse (FF).

A

The "cloister court" (G) on the south side of the nave of the church has on its east side the "pisalis" or "calefactory" (H), the common sitting-room of the brethren, warmed by flues beneath the floor. On this side in later monasteries we invariably find the chapter-house, the absence of which in this plan is somewhat surprising. It appears, however from the inscriptions on the plan itself, that the

north walk of the cloisters served for the purposes of a chapter-house, and was fitted up with benches on the long sides. Above the calefactory is the "dormitory" opening into the south transept of the church, to enable the monks to attend the nocturnal services with readiness. A passage at the other end leads to the "necessarium" (I), a portion of the monastic buildings always planned with extreme care. The southern side is occupied by the "refectory" (K), from the west end of which by a vestibule the kitchen (L) is reached. This is separated from the main buildings of the monastery, and is connected by a long passage with a building containing the bakehouse and brewhouse (M), and the sleeping-rooms of the servants. The upper story of the refectory is the "ves-tery in the 12th century, and enables us to compare it with tiarium," where the ordinary clothes of the brethren were kept. On the western side of the cloister is another two story building (N). The cellar is below, and the larder and store-room above. Between this building and the church, opening by one door into the cloisters, and by another to the outer part of the monastery area, is the "parlour" for interviews with visitors from the external world (O). On the eastern side of the north transept is the "scriptorium" or writing-room (P), with the library above.

ment, that by the 9th century monastic estabusaments had become wealthy, and had acquired considerable importance, and were occupying a leading place in education, agriculture, and the industrial arts. The influence such an institution would diffuse through a wide district would be no less beneficial than powerful.

The curious bird's eye view of Canterbury Cathedral and Canterits annexed conventual buildings, taken about 1165, pre- bury. served in the Great Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, as elucidated by Professor Willis with such admirable skill and accurate acquaintance with the existing remains, exhibits the plan of a great Benedictine monas

To the east of the church stands a group of buildings comprising two miniature conventual establishments, each complete in itself. Each has a covered cloister surrounded by the usual buildings, i.e., refectory, dormitory, &c., and a church or chapel on one side, placed back to back. A detached building belonging to each contains a bath and a kitchen. One of these diminutive convents is appropriated to the "oblati" or novices (Q), the other to the sick monks as an "infirmary" (R).

The "residence of the physicians" (S) stands contiguous to the infirmary, and the physic garden (T) at the north-east corner of the monastery. Besides other rooms, it contains a drug store, and a chamber for those who are dangerously ill The "house for blood-letting and purging" adjoins it on the west (U).

The "outer school," to the north of the convent area, contains a large school-room divided across the middle by a screen or partition, and surrounded by fourteen little rooms, termed the dwellings of the scholars. The head-master's house (W) is opposite, built against the side wall of the church. The two " hospitia" or "guest-houses" for the entertainment of strangers of different degrees (X1 X2) comprise a large common chamber or refectory in the centre, surrounded by sleeping apartments. Each is provided with its own brewhouse and bakehouse, and that for travellers of a superior order has a kitchen and store-room, with bed-rooms for their servants, and stables for their horses. There is also an "hospitium" for strange monks, abutting on the north wall of the church (Y).

Beyond the cloister, at the extreme verge of the convent area to the south, stands the "factory" (Z), containing workshops for shoemakers, saddlers (or shoemakers, sellarii), cutlers and grinders, trencher-makers, tanners, curriers, fullers, smiths, and goldsmiths, with their dwellings in the rear. On this side we also find the farm-buildings, the large granary and threshing-floor (a), mills (c), malthouse (d). Facing the west are the stables (e), ox-sheds f), goat-stables (g), piggeries (h), sheep-folds (i), together with the servants' and labourers' quarters (k). At the southeast corner we find the hen and duck house, and poultryyard (m), and the dwelling of the keeper (n). Hard by is the kitchen garden (0), the beds bearing the names of the vegetables growing in them, onions, garlic, celery, lettuces, poppy, carrots, cabbages, &c., eighteen in all. In the same way the physic garden presents the names of the medicinal herbs, and the cemetery (p) those of the trees, apple, pear, plum, quince, &c., planted there.

It is evident, from this most curious and valuable docu

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that of the 9th, as seen at St Gall. We see in both the same general principles of arrangement, which indeed belong to all Benedictine monasteries, enabling us to determine with precision the disposition of the various buildings, when little more than fragments of the walls exist. From some local reasons, however, the cloister and monastic buildings are placed on the north, instead, as is far more commonly the case, on the south of the church. There is also a separate chapter-house, which is wanting at St Gall.

The buildings at Canterbury, as at St Gall, form separate groups. The church forms the nucleus. In immediate contact with this, on the north side, lie the cloister and the group of buildings devoted to the monastic life. Outside of these, to the west and east, are the "halls and chambers devoted to the exercise of hospitality, with which every monastery was provided, for the purpose of receiving as guests persons who visited it, whether clergy or laity, travellers, pilgrims, or paupers." To the north a large open court divides the monastic from the menial buildings, intentionally placed as remote as possible from the conventual buildings proper, the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse, brewhouse, laundries, &c., inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. At the greatest possible distance from the church, beyond the precinct of the convent, is the eleemosynary department. The almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, forms the pauper's hospitium.

The most important group of buildings is naturally that devoted to monastic life. This includes two cloisters, the great cloister surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life of the monks,-the church to the south, the refectory or frater-house here as always on the side opposite to the church, and furthest removed from it, that no sound or smell of eating might penetrate its sacred precincts, to the east the dormitory, raised on a vaulted undercroft, and the chapter-house adjacent, and the lodgings of the cellarer to the west. To this officer was committed the provision of the monks' daily food, as well as that of the guests. He was, therefore, appropriately lodged in the immediate vicinity of the refectory and kitchen, and close to the guest-hall. A passage under the dormitory leads eastwards to the smaller or infirmary cloister, appropriated to the sick and infirm monks. Eastward of this cloister extend the hall and chapel of the infirmary, resembling in form and arrangement the nave and chancel of an aisled church. Beneath the dormitory, looking out into the green court or herbarium, lies the "pisalis" or "calefactory," the common room of the monks. At its northeast corner access was given from the dormitory to the necessarium, a portentous edifice in the form of a Norman hall, 145 feet long by 25 broad, containing fifty-five seats. It was, in common with all such offices in ancient monasteries, constructed with the most careful regard to cleanliness and

1 The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury. By the Rev. Robert Wilis. Printed for the Kent Archæological Society, 1869.

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